A Work in Progress...

The egg tempera underpainting:

The middle panel is fixed in place for the duration of the painting, so that everything will be as unified as possible. When both sides are completed, I will set the rotation back in motion. Thus, the final result will be a surprise, even to me.

Predijkherrenrij Grande front, Bruges, Belgium 2010. Egg tempera over india ink and silverpoint 44 cm x 59 cm

I use egg tempera to set up the basic color relationships of the final painting, using mostly earth pigments tempered with zinc white. My idea is to establish the general hues but not much of anything else since the previous (silverpoint/india ink) layer has already set up the composition and basic value relationships. I know the upcoming oil layers will enhance the value and saturation development, so here I proceed slowly, gingerly, keeping my hues soft and low. It doesn't take much for the image to start to come alive... After about one week, the egg tempera should be dry enough to handle oil. The next stage is the imprimatura...

Predijkherrenrij Grande back, Bruges, Belgium 2010. Egg tempera over india ink and silverpoint 44 cm x 59 cm